UPDATE: Christian Wood will be waived to make room for Brand on the roster, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Wood is a rookie who had appeared in 14 games for the 76ers averaging 3.6 points and 3.2 rebounds in just over eight minutes per contest.

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It sounds weird to say but the Philadelphia 76ers are playing their best basketball of the season lately, as they have won two of their last five games to get their record to 3-33. Despite the lost season, the 76ers still want the rest of the year to be a teaching moment for their young players, but in order to do that they need some veteran's to help them out. It looks as though the 76ers will be getting that veteran, as Elton Brand is expected to sign, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports.

Brand is 36 years old and had already informally announced his retirement this past offseason, but even then he left it open for a possible return. Brand was interested in playing another season in the NBA, but he wasn't getting much interest around the league, so he decided to call it quits. Even then, though, Brand said that he would be able to get in shape if he got the call, and that seems to be the case now.

The 76ers have been on a quest to bring in veteran leaders recently, as they know their team is extremely young and some of their players don't have anyone to look up to. Jahlil Okafor had his off-the-court fights, Joel Embiid lacked motivation in his recovery, and Nerlens Noel had his issues when he was a rookie, too. The 76ers have had interest in Brand and Shane Battier for a little while now, but at the time that was first reported it seemed like the role in Philadelphia would be in the organization.

It appears that Brand is being signed as a player, and although he likely won't provide much on the floor he can be a mentor for Okafor and Noel among others. Brand played with the Atlanta Hawks last season and only appeared in 36 games, averaging 2.7 points and 2.8 rebounds in 13.5 minutes per contest. Brand was a first overall pick back in 1999 and has had a very solid NBA career. He played with the 76ers for four seasons and had some solid years between 2008 and 2012.

The 76ers currently have 15 players on their roster so they will need to make another move in order to fit Brand but that move has not been announced just yet. Philadelphia previously cut Tony Wroten when they traded for Ish Smith around Christmas.