24 teams, and only 8 are eliminated in the group stage. Prior to expansion in the 80s, the NBA put 16 of its 23 teams in the playoffs each year. Basically only culling the deadweight.

With the one exception of Italy-Croatia, these final group stage games to me have been hard to watch.

I get that you want a round of 16, but then just let 32 teams start the tournament and only let the top 2 from each group advance. Would have made these games more watchable with more on the line, even if you would have had a few duds with both teams already being eliminated prior to playing game 3.