After being traded from the LA Clippers to the Utah Jazz, nine-time NBA All-Star Russell Westbrook was waived by Utah and will sign with the Denver Nuggets as a free agent. In a report from The Athletic’s Shams Charania, it was revealed that Westbrook is joining the Nuggets on a two-year contract worth $6.8M that includes a player option for the second season.

Westbrook will join the Nuggets as a much needed rotation guard after Denver lost both Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Jackson this summer. Capable of a lot more of what Denver needs than what Jackson was able to do last season, Westbrook should help the Nuggets in several different ways.

Westbrook appeared in 68 games for the Clippers last season, only missing time due to a fractured left hand that cost him three weeks. Averaging 11.1 PPG, 5.0 APG, and 4.5 APG in just 22.5 minutes per game, Westbrook became the only qualifying player in NBA history to reach those averages in less than 23 minutes per game.

Also one of the NBA’s best on-ball guard defenders last season, Westbrook was often tasked with defending the other team’s best player when on the court. This is a responsibility he will almost certainly see more of next season with the Nuggets losing Caldwell-Pope to the Orlando Magic in free agency.

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Despite being hobby homebrewers and longtime craft beer enthusiasts, Aaron Uhl and Dan Colbourne had never visited Renegade Brewing Co. in Denver before this spring.

For months prior, the two Coloradans had been prospecting locations to open a new brewery. When they heard about Renegade’s plans to close, they decided it was time to pop in for a pint.

The vibe and sense of community in the taproom won them over almost immediately and by July, they had inked a deal with the previous owner to purchase the spot at 925 W 9th Ave., along with the brewery’s recipes, equipment, website and other intellectual property.

“What Aaron and I were looking for was something that had a taproom-centric setup, but did not have distribution. We do not want distribution,” Colbourne said. “As we talked about opening organically, we felt it made much more sense with an established presence, an established clientele, and something that had a brand with history that we could take and build on.”

Renegade Brewing Co., originally founded in 2011, tentatively plans to reopen on Aug. 17 under the same name and new ownership. Uhl has brewed professionally in Colorado since 2018, most recently as the proprietor of Uhl’s Brewing Co., which operated in Boulder from 2020 to 2023. Colbourne currently works as a CFO with a background in business acquisitions.

At first, Renegade’s taps will serve guest beers from popular breweries along the Front Range, including some of Uhl’s previous collaborators like River North Brewery, WestFax Brewing Co. and Goldspot Brewing Co. The owners plan to replace the Renegade brewhouse with a new, 10-barrel brewing system and ditch many of the onsite fermentation vessels so they can expand the taproom’s footprint. While that is in the works, Uhl hopes to create original beers with some of the aforementioned partners to serve at Renegade.

By this fall, drinkers can expect to find house-made beverages, Colbourne said, including some of Renegade’s original staples. The lineup may also include some non-alcoholic options, he added.

Uhl encourages longtime patrons to stop by and let him know which old Renegade recipes they’d like to see on the new menu. “We’re going to let the community pick their top three beers for the core lineup,” he said.

“The idea is we want to take three months to offer beers across a wide spectrum to see what consumer is looking for,” Colbourne added.

Beer drinkers will see Uhl’s signature styles on the menu as it evolves. Uhl estimates he brewed 275 unique beers during the three years that Uhl Brewing Co. was open, but his specialties are barrel-aged beers, strong ales and dank IPAs. He also spent a stint in Brussels last year where he learned to blend lambics from the pros.

“Our new tagline is ‘styles be damned, nothing is sacred,’” Uhl said.

Both Uhl and Colbourne said there are many details of the new operation that will be worked out in the coming months, and they hope local customers will help shape the brewery’s evolution.

“One thing we noticed when we went there is Renegade is really a neighborhood get-together,” Colbourne said. “That sense of community is something we want to rebuild and leverage.”

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According to a report from Tom Pelissero of NFL Network, the Denver Broncos and wide receiver Courtland Sutton have worked out a deal to restructure his contract. The restructured deal will include a base salary of $13 million, with a potential for $1.5 million more in incentives.

This comes just two days after head coach Sean Payton assured the media and fans that Sutton would be at training camp saying, “He’ll be here like we talked about and ready to go.”

These negotiations have been in the works for a while and it seemed like things were progressing in a positive manner.

“It’s obviously something that is, has been conversed about and my team and I have been in contact with the guys upstairs that handle all of that stuff,” Sutton said in June. “We were kind of going back and forth trying to figure out the best way to kind of find a middle ground for the situation and we are at a stalemate in a sense, but I have confidence and faith that the right thing will be done.”

That middle ground was found this week with this restructured deal. If he has a big season, Sutton will be able to earn north of $15 million this season which would be a decent haul. He has not had a 1,000 yard season since 2019, but saw his best catch percentage and touchdown season yet last year when he hauled in 59 catches for 772 yards and 10 touchdowns.

The targets definitely need to increase in 2024 for him to return to that 2019 form and maybe with a new quarterback that is something that could happen.