NBA Award Watch: Antetokounmpo, LeBron and Wiggins making a statement

With Week 1 in the books, we’re handing out awards to players for their amazing performances, showcasing different skills — on and off the court.

Kyrie Irving in Boston. Chris Paul in Houston. Carmelo Anthony and Paul George in Oklahoma City. It was a crazy offseason and anticipation grew towards opening night and the first week of basketball.

In this weekly column, I’ll start to hand out awards based on the performances of the previous week. Obviously, I’ll take a look at the major NBA honors, including MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Coach of the Year, Most Improved Player and Executive of the Year. Other than these usual honors, I’ll also hand out awards for the Best Dunk, Dazzling Dime, Perfect Play, Fantastic Fashion and Terrific Tweet.

Each week, I’ll check in on five awards that need to be discussed. The first seven days of action in the NBA has been absolutely exhilarating, filled with the Suns falling apart, a Lonzo Ball triple-double, numerous Giannis Antetokounmpo praises and two Warriors’ losses.

Let’s go ahead and select winners for the first week in the #NBAAwardWatch.

Dazzling Dime

LeBron James is entering his 15th season as a professional basketball player and every year it becomes more and more of a privilege to watch him play.

He’s dazzled with big-time shots, chase-down blocks, but his biggest strength might be dishing the ball from different points on the court. James can do it with ease using both hands, getting the rock to his teammate for an easy finish.

On opening night against the Boston Celtics, one of James’ nine assists was an amazing left-handed bounce pass to Jae Crowder for an easy layup, who was cutting along the baseline.

James’ ability to see Crowder cutting and then get the ball around the out-stretched arms of Aron Baynes is amazing. The award for Dazzling Dime of the week goes to James, who showcases his ability to create plays for his teammates on a routine basis.

I’m sure LeBron will show up in this category multiple times before the year ends, but its his first mention on the #NBAAwardWatch.

Terrific Tweet

This summer, #NBATwitter took on a life of its own, with teams using their social media channels to diss each other, players throwing shade at each other and fans — including Kevin Durant and his potential use of fake accounts.

The first award that we’re going to present goes for the most Terrific use of Twitter and the winner is Cleveland Cavaliers’ role player, Channing Frye.

Frye has always been a jovial, out-spoken player and his true personality has been revealed on Road Trippin’ Pod, where he and Richard Jefferson often joke around about other players and fans.

On Monday, when the Suns made it clear that Eric Bledsoe will not be returning to Phoenix, fans across the NBA began to crank the ESPN Trade Machine to find a viable deal to land Bledsoe on their team. This one Cavs’ fan decided to send Iman Shumpert and Channing Frye to Phoenix for the Suns’ point guard.

Check out the back and forth between Frye and this fan:

Here’s what the fan, Delane Parnell, sent out, with Frye’s response below:

Often, analysts and fans wonder how players feel about being rumored in potential trades, but it seems like Frye doesn’t take much offense to it, clapping back at this fan rather quickly.

Eric Bledsoe’s “I Dont wanna be here” tweet earns honorable mention honors, but Frye’s creativity in his response to the fan eventually won out.

Best Dunk

When I tell you who won the award for Best Dunk, I promise there’ll be two reactions that will be forever attached to this player. “How did the Chicago Bulls ship this player to the Golden State Warriors for nothing?” and “How did the Golden State Warriors end up with this player?”

His athleticism is off the charts and being a three-year player at Oregon has also developed other parts of his game. While many may call him Draymond Green 2.0, I prefer to think that Jordan Bell has far more athleticism in his game. As evidenced on Monday night in Dallas, Bell didn’t even hesitate when the Warriors were blowing the Mavericks out and the opportunity for a highlight dunk came up.

Bell showcased his hops in this play, throwing the ball off the backboard for a huge jam, leaving Kevin Durant speechless and his hand over his mouth in awe.

Bell’s self alley-oop earns the Best Dunk of the week. Given his athleticism and his role on the Warriors, I’m sure he’ll win this award more than a few times before the season concludes.

Perfect Play

On paper, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder sound like a great matchup. Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony on one side, with Jimmy Butler, Karl Anthony-Towns and Andrew Wiggins on the other. Sunday night’s game between the two teams will be the first of some great games in this soon-to-be rivalry.

Let’s run the entire sequence for you, before we show you the Perfect Play from Week 1 in the NBA.

Fifty-one seconds, Thunder down 108-105, Westbrook hits a floater of the glass to cut the Timberwolves’ lead to two points. Wiggins gets a putback dunk and puts Minnesota up by three with 37 seconds to go. Westbrook hits a three-point shot from Tulsa and the game’s tied at 100 apiece. Towns hits a floater with nine seconds left to give the T’Wolves a two-point lead. And we’re just getting started.

So here’s how the last nine seconds of the game played out on Sunday night.

The Perfect Play award goes to Andrew Wiggins who hits the game-winning three-point shot from well beyond the line to give the T’Wolves a huge win on the road. Crazy thing is that Anthony probably wins this award if Wiggins doesn’t come up with the buzzer-beater in Oklahoma City.

Most Valuable Player

Last up on the #NBAAwardWatch is the most talked about honor in the NBA: Most Valuable Player. There’s often a debate between fans, does MVP mean Best Player or Player with Best Season? Well, through four games, Giannis Antetokounmpo is on pace to have the best season of any NBA player this year.

Antetokounmpo was a dark-horse favorite for the award, due to the landscape in the NBA. LeBron James coasts through the regular season, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry cancel each other out, Russell Westbrook has legitimate help this season and James Harden has a running mate in Chris Paul.

The Greek Freak might be the only superstar where the difference in skill between him and the second-best player on the team is so large. Coming into Monday’s contest, Antetokounmpo was averaging 38.3 points, 5.0 assists and 9.7 rebounds per game on 67 percent shooting.

Next: NBA Season Preview 2017-18: 5 ways everything goes wrong for the Cavaliers

Antetokounmpo has carried the Bucks to a 3-1 record through three games, with the only loss coming to James and the Cavaliers. He’s taken down the Celtics and the Blazers — two high-end playoff teams in other games.

While it’s early in the season, if the Bucks can finish in the top-four of the Eastern Conference and Antetokounmpo can maintain his dominant play and high usage rate, the MVP should be all his at the end of the season.