NBA commissioner Adam Silver is looking to take a hard stance on teams tanking and underlined this by recently hitting Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with a $600,000 fine for publicly admitting that he told his players "losing is their best option".

In a memo sent to all 30 teams in the league to explain the fine to Cuban, Silver also reminded them that tanking "has no place in our game".

"We have been careful to distinguish between efforts teams may make to rebuild their rosters, including through personnel changes over the course of several seasons, and circumstances in which players or coaches on the floor take steps to lose games," Silver wrote in the memo, obtained by USA Today Sports.

With this in mind, it has been revealed that the NBA has sent a warning to Chicago Bulls about resting healthy players in games over the last few weeks.

Bulls executive vice president John Paxson has explained that they have had discussions with the league office regarding the best way to handle the remaining 19 games this season.

Like many teams across the league, Chicago is focused on this summer's draft but they have made it clear that they are keen to see how their young players perform with extended minutes in regards to their recent lineup changes.

The likes of Cristiano Felicio and David Nwaba have seen more playing time on the floor whilst veterans Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday have been given games off.

"After the All-Star break, we had communication with the league office about Robin and Justin's roles," said Paxson, per ESPN's Nick Fridell.

"After healthy dialogue, the league determined that their situations fall into the 'player rest' policy. We respect the communication and cooperative dialogue with the league and will adhere to their recommendations going forward."

It's clear that the NBA has made it a priority to monitor teams tanking and will clamp down on those who leave healthy players out to intentionally lose games and improve their draft positioning.

At this stage of the campaign, the goal of losing teams is to secure the best possible position in the draft lottery and the league is aware they'll only do this by accruing as many losses as possible in the remaining games.

The Bulls are 21-42 and currently sit in the eighth position in the lottery, per ESPN. They'll take on the Memphis Grizzlies at home on Wednesday night and it'll be interesting to see how they respond to the warning from commissioner Silver.

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