If the lag concern of easy world entity buildup is an issue, it can be made to be a normal item on the ground. But still the 3D model when in hand and thrown in the air.
As for the animation suggestion, it just means more than spinning on the Y axis slowly at the point of being thrown. So it it spins around.
More like the videos below.
[Thanks to Landon's playing around with models .etc for the videos]
Here are some recent examples.
https://streamable.com/xjay1z
https://streamable.com/4stin3