Does anyone have any tips or best practices for using NFS mounted directories?
In Finder press: 


⇧+⌘+G to go to a directory. Since the automounting of /net is handled by the operating system (via Autofs, see the technical white paper) it will mount the share.
⌘+K to open the Connections window, where you can even save your commonly accessed locations.


(see the Go menu)

But I don't think you can rename connections.