The more I think about the IST, here's roughly what I wish were different about it:
- Slightly more games of "buildup", of qualifier, to decide who gets in. Having it be just 4 games wasn't enough, it felt like everybody was 3-1 and the tiebreaker of points was too salient.
- Have the "groups" of teams just be the divisions. Build division rivalry. Make divisions matter.
- Maybe have more teams qualify. One more round of the tourney.
- Because of the first bullet, the actual last games and championship of the IST will come slightly later. Not too late, not close to the All-Star game. But maybe in mid-December or something. Then the xmas games, which already pop a nice rating, could be like follow-ups to whatever happened in the tournament.
- Come up with some kind of non-cash incentive for doing well in the IST. Maybe IST performance is used as a tiebreaker for playoff seeding for teams that have equal records at the end of the season. Maybe it gives you a few more pingpong balls in the next draft lottery. Something.
I don't know. I just want a little more to it, a little more meat on the bone.