Oh, just to make clear, I agree that Simmons isn't close to Bayless, especially publicly. I still "love" reading Simmons despite his grating flaws. (Cut to everyone nodding.) That's just my favorite Skip Clip and tied in. (And I needed to get my 2013 callback rant about the Billups stuff in before the end of tax season. Cut to Chauncey Billups being called for a foul on a player knocked out of bounds by the ref.)
But I do think Simmons has warmed to stats actually working with these guys, going to Sloan, talking to JVG, Cuban, etc. He hadn't been doing that at Page 2 and before his podcast. He has hinted that he's had more-than-off-the-record conversations with Morey and such similar to that Cuban/Bayless about stuff he had never really thought too closely about.
And the guy has been openly a nervous wreck about appearing regularly on the NBA coverage. It probably pisses him off to see Bayless doing his act and not changing ever while he tried hard to improve himself to do basically the same job and meet a level he expects from the talking heads.
Semi-related side note: I read this in the last couple months:
Decent enough book I suppose (like the SNL one from the same guys) but certainly confirmed my impressions about not wanting to ever work at ESPN. (You know, hypothetically.)
(Also, I couldn't read any of the Stephen A. Smith parts as if he wasn't yelling them at me.)