LeBron James ($41.2M) + Anthony Davis ($35.4M) + KCP ($13M) + Kuzma ($13M) is $102.6M

So just with those 4, you're left with only $10M. But then add in the still-remaining $5M dead cap hit from Luol Deng and $2.7M for Marc Gasol and we're up to $108.3M for those 5 players (LeBron, AD, KCP, Kuzma, Gasol)

Then there's the incomplete roster charge for any open roster spots - where the 8 remaining spots are considered at the rookie minimum of ~$900k. So there's another $7.2M in cap space eaten up.

So, if Harrell opts out, the Lakers have $115.5M committed for 2021-2022, or $3M over the salary cap.

Of course, the $112M is a soft cap and teams can go over it using a variety of methods - however, those are often limited to signing their own players (i.e. Schroeder, Caruso, Horton-Tucker), trading for players while sending out near-equivalent salary, or certain salary exceptions (mid-level and biannual) that are limited in scope. There's limitations on what they can do in free agency though once they're above that line...which, oh yeah, they already are.

So explain to me how Los Angeles can get $30M in cap room that they can spend on free agents? They can't. That limits what they can do; they can absolutely go way over - but only to retain their own players.

Give Schroeder $18M, Harrell $10M, Caruso $9M, Horton-Tucker $5M and they've spent $43M just fine (huge luxury tax bill, but that's not my issue). But that doesn't mean they can spend $43M on Kawhi Leonard (if he's available) or go pay Kyle Lowry and John Collins each $20M (honestly, they both probably top that number anyway).