There are 14 NBA teams who do not make the playoffs. Of these teams, 3 of them will be randomly selected to make the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pick. How many different ways can the 1st-3rd pick be arranged?

1 Answer
Jun 18, 2018

There are 2184 ways to pick the 1st-3rd teams.

Explanation:

Since being the 1st pick is different from bring the 2nd or 3rd picks, the order of teams picked matters here, so we are dealing with a permutation problem. To pick the 1st team, there are 14 different teams to chose from, 13 teams left for the 2nd pick, and 12 teams left for the 3rd pick. Using the general multiplication rule, we end up with 14(13)(12) = 2184 different ways to pick the 1st-3rd teams.