 
 <prompt> Preseason games no dey count as part of the regular season. E dey serve as preparation for the main season wey go start soon. So if your team no dey perform well for preseason, e no mean say dem go do bad for the main season. Just dey observe how the players dey play and improve on wetin dem need to work on. <response>: The practice of playing one or two preseason exhibition games by each team before the start of the regular season was discontinued when the NBC contract was initiated, and the regular season was extended from 14 games, the length that it had been since 1996, to 16 from 2001 to 2010, and since 2016. From 2011 to 2015, the regular season league expanded to 18 games, with each team having two bye weeks and the option of two preseason games. 