The question after a week of free agency upheaval, especially in the Eastern Conference, is where do the Celtics stand after signing Al Horford?

The Cleveland Cavaliers remain the best team in the conference, and all they did was acquire Mike Dunleavy to help the Bulls create salary cap space to sign Dwyane Wade. They lost Matthew Dellavedova to the Milwaukee Bucks, but he had lost his backup point guard role during the playoffs.

The Celtics, meanwhile, not only added Horford, who was introduced to the media Friday in Waltham, but brought back Amir Johnson to start at center along with bench sparkplug Jonas Jerebko at a $5 million price, a bargain in today’s NBA landscape.

There remain decisions to be made. Jared Sullinger and Tyler Zeller are restricted free agents, and the Celtics are awaiting contract offers they can match or surpass.

Team president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said Thursday that the Celtics are not done in free agency, although the market is drying up. They desperately need a quality backup center, unless they view Zeller in that role, and also a knockdown shooter.

Nabbing a shooter will be the more difficult endeavor. With this escalating market, quality shooters are getting signed quickly. For example, the Brooklyn Nets made a four-year, $75 million offer to Portland restricted free agent Allen Crabbe, who was not expected to start if he returned to the Trail Blazers.

Crabbe averaged 10.3 points off the Portland bench last season and shot 39.4 percent from the 3-point line. With the Celtics targeting even more free agents next summer, spending $17 million on a shooter, when they already have R.J. Hunter and James Young on the roster, may be a risk that could quickly backfire.

The Celtics saved a maximum salary cap slot for Kevin Durant, in hopes he would join Horford in Boston, but when Durant chose the Golden State Warriors, they had that money left over. Ainge told the agents of Johnson and Jerebko they would not return if the club added another maximum contract player. That didn’t happen.

Even with the returns of Johnson and Jerebko at a combined $17 million, the Celtics still have $16 million in cap space to perhaps facilitate a trade. But the players on the market likely are all going to come with risks. Rudy Gay apparently wants out of Sacramento and could serve as the scoring small forward the organization relishes.

Gay, however, turns 30 in August and his desire to win over putting up big numbers has always come into question. And he also shot just 34.4 percent from the 3-point line last season.

Ainge will be working in the coming weeks to use that cap space to perhaps spin the major trade the Celtics’ faithful have been seeking. But NBA insiders and executives believe the team’s most valuable chip is the ability to swap picks with the Brooklyn Nets next season.

Even if the Nets get Tyler Johnson from the Miami Heat and Crabbe from Portland, they could be one of the league’s worst teams next season. New general manager Sean Marks has signed midlevel players — Jeremy Lin and Trevor Booker — to remain competitive but in what could be one of the deeper drafts in several years, the Celtics could get back into the Top 5, an asset they shouldn’t part with.

What Ainge doesn’t want to do is acquire a player through trade who may prevent the team from chasing a marquee player during next summer’s free agency. Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and Gordon Hayward will be on the market next summer.

Horford told reporters Friday he liked the direction of the organization and Boston’s style of play. The Celtics were a 48-win team last season and that should improve with a rather shaky Eastern Conference — Miami, Toronto, Charlotte, and Atlanta all could be considerably worse than last season.

There will be options for Ainge as the summer progresses, especially with teams perhaps looking to dump established veterans to take advantage of another spike in the salary cap next summer and sign major free agents. So the free agency/trade season is far from over despite the market beginning to dry.

The danger for the Celtics is not to be enticed by the wrong player. There will be plenty of teams in coming months who will have buyer’s remorse over their frivolous free agent signings.

Gary Washburn can be reached at gwashburn@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GwashburnGlobe.